Through the Garden
by KiannaLeighMV500
Summary: AU! Lee has always been content to live out his life in his garden. It was where he thought he belonged. But when when two men enter and lure him out he ends up crisscrossing world in to right wrongs, help his friends and finally be reunited with the man he loves. The world can be a very big garden. OTP of Obito and Lee, many side pairings. For AngelArchive18.


**Well it's been two years from the conception of this to now but here's the first chapter at last. Even though this has taken me so long to get through, I really like it none-the-less. And I hope you do to, AA13.**

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Obito stood at the wooden gate, his hands balled into tight fists at his sides. The gate rose twenty feet up, curving and twisting almost like a living thing. The bars were shifting shades of brown. Deep green leaves sprouted daintily over the whole structure. The top of the gate was protected by jagged thorns. There was no door.

Shifting from foot to foot, the black haired man glared up at the fence. His goggles were pulled up over his forehead for the moment and covered his silver ninja headband. His whole body was tense as he concentrated on the task before him. He gritted his teeth.

Obito had just received orders calling him to a far off battle field. A ninja-war had broken out and more and more men and women were being called to the battlefield. It bothered him immensely. He didn't want to go. But orders were orders.

Besides, his best friends had already been called to the field. They would be there in a matter of days. He wouldn't let them fight alone. In three weeks - since three weeks was the amount of time he'd been given to prepare - he'd be on his way to join them. But first, he wanted something.

Even ninja were wary of entering the forests alone. Demon and fay stalked the darkened woods and could carry off even the strongest and most keen minded of mortals. And venturing into their lairs were especially dangerous. Especially at night. And yet here he was.

Eden. It stood a mere two miles across, not far from his village. Named after the legendary paradise of myth the circle space was a demon's lair. No one had seen the demon in years but odd lights and strange sounds emanated from behind the living gates and that was enough to keep all but the bravest or most desperate ninja out.

However Obito was both brave and desperate. Behind the living gate were plants tainted by demonic energy. There were vines and branches that could be turned to deadly weapons with the right influx of chakra. There were leaves whose oil was the most lethal of poisons and roots that when ground up could heal a wound in the half the time it normally took. In short the demon garden was an earth-grown storeroom for ninja weapons. If he could collect even a little from inside, Obito would give himself a distinct advantage when he went to war. And so it was worth the risk to sneak inside on a night that the lights seemed to be least active.

Releasing his fists once before balling them back up again, the raven haired young man took a deep breath. When he released his breath he rushed forward and in one chakra fueled jump rose above the top of the gate.

Instantly the garden reacted to defend itself. The thorny top of the gate shot up to catch him in its razor-sharp grasp but one shot from his fire-release jitsu roasted the vine to ashes and he landed in the grass on the other side. He wasted no time once he was on the ground and dashed farther into the garden away from the living gate which was writhing in apparent anger.

Obito ran until the gate's hissing faded into silence, then slowed to a stop and sighed. The garden wasn't as dark as the surrounding areas. Many of the plants glowed with a definitely unnatural light. It made the ninja's skin crawl. He wanted to gather the supplies and get out as soon as possible. Quickly he checked his gear then turned to begin his search. As he did, a noise caught his attention. He looked up and laid eyes for the first time on the Demon of Eden.

It was different that Obito had imagined it would be. He had thought that the demon would be a huge snarling beast with giant fangs dripping with poison. He had expected it to be covered in moss or be part plant. He had prepared to fight and ugly smelly creature freshly emerged from the tainted ground of the garden.

But instead, he found a angel.

He wasn't that tall. Obito was bigger than the man. He was also burlier than the demon - if that was what it was. Instead of a beast, it was willowy man with long slender limbs and pale shining skin. The shorter man had jet black hair that stopped in a perfect line just above his strong eyebrows in front of his face, and just under his chin everywhere else. His face was nearly perfect. He had a small round nose that was a bit under defined for Obito's taste and a little mouth like a child's. But he had strong pointed chin and high cheekbones, like a woman. However above all else, his eyes were by far his most striking feature. They were two deep black pools that reflected the light back like they were covered by a film of tears. His muscles stood against his tightly draw skin, giving his body strong masculine definition, but his long proportions and delicate face made him nearly feminine. Either way, he was breathtakingly beautiful. He wore nothing on his body but three bracelets on his right wrist made of vines blooming with small blue flowers, an armband on his left arm that seemed to a branch growing there on it's own, and a circlet of brown and green vines.

The demon stared at him then tilted his head to one side.

"What are you doing in my garden?" the demon asked. His voice sounded like cool silver water flowing over the ninja's mind. It was hard for him to think after hearing it.

"I … I'm going to war," he said sluggishly.

The demon stepped forward out of the lower branches of a nearby tree. He didn't fall as a person should. Instead he drifted down to the ground and made no noise when he landed.

"You're going to fight in a war?"

"Yes. There's …" Obito shifted. He couldn't remember why it was he was leaving. His thoughts were so disorganized, so muddled, that he couldn't think in a straight line. He closed his eyes, so the demon's naked body wouldn't distract him."There's a dispute in the western lands. A Ninja War. My friends have already gone to fight. I'm going too."

Obito opened his eyes to find the demon face to face with him. He could smell the creature. He smelled like warm wet earth, turned over for planting.

"You might die," the demon said airly. "Why go to where you might die?"

"Because … my friends are there." Obito's voice was weak. He knew he was being taken in by a demon, but couldn't help himself. The demon took a half step back before replying.

"If you're friends want to go die, let them die alone."

The words were like an arrow. They pierced through the fog in the human's mind and lit his heart on fire. He grit his teeth and balled his hands into fists.

"I would never abandon my friends!" he shouted. "My friends, my precious people, mean everything to me! If they walk into danger, I'm going too, if only to protect them. That is my ninja way! I wouldn't expect a demon to understand."

The demon looked at him without reacting. That only made Obito angrier. He strode forward and brushed past the demon without a second glance. He wasn't going to explain the noble intentions of humans to a demon. He was going to collect his herbs and go back to his village. He only had a few weeks to get ready.

For a while, he collected his herbs undisturbed but then he felt the air shift around him. Suddenly, there was more light to see by. He turned and sure enough the demon was standing behind him.

"Hello," the demon said as he silently approached.

"Hello," the ninja greeted stiffly.

"Are you finding everything easily?"

"Yes."

"Okay." The demon paused. He was right by Obito right shoulder. The human could smell him, could feel the light coming off him as he leaned over him. "Do you want me to help you?"

"Why would you want to help me?"

The demon paused and shifted a few times. "Well … I'm bored. And you interest me."

Obito didn't respond. He just turned back to the bush he was digging under. He was trying to dig up the roots, but they turned brittle almost as soon as the air touched them and crumbled into dirt under his fingers.

"You can't move the dirt." The demon crouched down next to him and pushed his fingers into the soil. "This is too dry. Here."

The reached up, and with a gesture over the top of the neighboring plants, made it rain from the leaves.

"When the soil is nice a muddy, dig your hands in the dirt and feel for the roots. Grab them under the mud. Cup your hands like this." The demon cupped his hand in front of Obito to show him. "Then pull them up and dump them into a container with wet leaves in it. You have to keep them moist or they're gonna crumble. If you need to mix them into something, it's then you let them dry out into dust. Rinse off the mud and set them aside. Once they're dry you can make powder of them. The powder dissolves in water but it turns it sort of orange. The water will be sweet, but bad to drink. It'll make a human's insides dry up. Either that or thin the blood. Something between the two I think." the demon frowned and scrunched up his face as he thought.

Obito stared at the demon. When the pale man noticed, he smiled and with another swipe of his hand, stopped the water flow from the leaves.

"We're ready," the demon declared.

"Thank you?" the ninja muttered.

"You're welcome!"

For a moment it was silent between them. Then the demon spoke again.

"I'm Rock Lee."

"... Uchiha Obito."

"Hi Obito."

"Hi."

The demon shifted and plunged his hands wrist-deep into the muck under the bush. "Get some wet leaves for this, while I dig them out, okay?"

For a moment Obito didn't move. He wasn't sure if he should. But in the end, he shifted and took out a little pot and some paper. He pressed the paper into the mud until it was damp then stuffed it into the jar.

"Ready," he said.

The demon nodded and began dropping little handfuls of muddy globs into the jar.

"Make sure you open it either underwater or under running water."

"Right."

"Obito?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not a demon."

The ninja stopped and looked up at the man. The pale figure's deep, dark eyes were trained on him, holding him in place. He didn't seem like a demon in hindsight.

"So what are you?"

"I'm a fairy of the tame forests."

"So … you're a garden fairy?"

"Yea. I guess you could call me that."

"Well. Okay. Good to know."

Rock Lee, the Garden Fairy of Eden, smiled. The air around him seemed to shimmer. "So do you need anything else?"

The moon was full. In a week, Obito was would leave the place that had been his home since he was a baby and go to fight in a far of land that he'd only ever seen in books. However he had to admit, he was wasn't scared. In fact he felt calm, hopeful even. He hoped to find his friends alive and felt in his heart that all of them being together again would increase the likelihood of them all coming back alive. And when that happened, he hoped to introduce his friends to Lee.

The living gate loomed over him as he approached, but the human eyed it with a smile. He quickened his pace a little. He'd been waiting all day to return to Eden. As if sensing his excitement, the gate began to writhe and shift. The buds on the branched bloomed into huge flowers and the vines parted to create an opening just big enough for him to slip through. Obito stepped through and swept his eyes over the area as the gate crawled back into place behind him.

Trees, grass and shrubs of all sorts reached out from the dense garden towards and the gate. Obito shifted as he looked into the moonlit space. Then he saw it. All at once, on one particular bush, a mass of red and deep blue flowers bloomed. The robust blossoms glowed ever so slightly filling the air around them with pink and purplish flecks of light. Obito smiled and took off toward the bush. The moment his footsteps hit the ground, the flowers began to wilt and die, first losing their glow then drying up and crumbling to dust. By the time he reached it, the bush was as it had been before, but a tree up ahead shimmered the the same glowing buds and Obito shifted to chase the light again. In this way the ninja was lead into the depths of garden until he found Lee.

The fairy was in a small clearing. In one hand he held a long green blade that looked like the leaf of a tree. Obito slowed to a stop off to one side. The fairy didn't seem to notice him. Instead he twirled the blade over his head with both hands as he moved across the grass. He cut down invisible foes with dizzying speed, his form nothing more than a blur of white accompanied by a high pitched hum. Obito stared in awe.

Lee was no warrior, the fairy had made that clear during their talks over that last two weeks. However despite that he moved with a speed and precision lacking in any human Obito had ever seen. He could hardly follow the man's steps and at several times he seemed to be in more than one place at once. Through it all that same humming persisted. Finally it became too much for Obito and he took a step back and grimaced.

It was then that Lee finally seemed to notice him. He stop so suddenly that to Obito it looked like the light around him kept going and got pulled back to him. It was terribly disorienting. The fairy was still holding the sword with both hands. Now that it was still, Obito could see that it was more like a leaf than he first thought. It was serrated and had a veins in it. The blade did not lay flat but was curved ever so slightly like a blade of very tall grass. Strangest of all, the handle was not separated from the blade by a guard like in most blades. Instead the hilt of the sword shot down like a stem then parted and curved back up in a web of viney arms, catching the wielder's hand before it could slip onto the bottom of the blade and protecting it from an attacker's blade simultaneously. It was an impressive weapon.

Lee looked at him. He was still naked but the flowers on his bracelets were red and his armband was a young, bright-green stalk clinging to his pale skin. The fairy's eyes were focused and fierce. Against his knowledge of Lee, Obito tensed and itched to reach for a weapon. Whether Lee saw that or not, he broke out into a smile. His entire body relaxed and he stood up straighter.

"Obito!"

Lee rushed at him, and in the moments he was moving, the high pitched sound started up and died again. Obito stumbled backwards as the fairy hit him. The strange sword got lost in the grass as Lee carelessly dropped it.

"Obito. I missed you."

"I was here last night and the night before that."

"I doesn't matter to me. Time is nothing to me. I missed you."

The human laughed and slowly wrapped his arms around the fairy. "I missed you."

"I made you a sword. You can take the seeds and when you add your chakra to them, they will make swords."

"Swords?" Obito asked lightly as he tightened his grip on his supernatural friend.

"Yes. Each seed is one sword. So don't lose the bag. Give some seeds to your friends. You'll never be without a weapon."

"Thank you, Rock Lee."

"You're welcome, Uchiha Obito."

For some time they stood there together. Lee didn't seem to want to move and Obito knew better than to try to move him. It was too dangerous for him to attempt to force the fairy into anything. The garden would lash out at him if it thought he was doing Lee any harm, even though that was something he'd never do.

Finally they parted and Lee took his hand and led him through the trees. Obito tried to ask where they were going but Lee refused to answer. In fact he cut him off before he could even question him properly. After that, Obito began to guess out loud but that got him nowhere either. After a few minutes of walking Lee stopped at a huge tree.

Obito stared up at the massive plant. He'd seen it from outside the garden gates, as it stood towering over the rest of the plant life but up close it seemed even bigger. The trunk was as solid as a mountain. The bark at the bottom was worn smooth but became rougher as the tree extended up into space. The straight truck eventually gave way to heavy limbs that stretched out in all directions like a canopy. In the same way that veins in leaves or the human body did, the limbs of the tree broke down into smaller and smaller branches creating a tangled web of arms all covered in moss, vines and leaves. Lights, obscured by the tree's form, hovered weightlessly in the depths of the tangled appendages.

The human stared, lips parted in silent gasp of awe. When he felt his hand being grasped, he blinked and came back to himself . Lee was holding his arm, grinning at him.

"Come on," the fairly whispered. With a gentle pull he began to lead him towards the tree. When the reached its base, Lee let him go and rose, as if weightless, up towards the branches. "Do you need my help?" he asked.

Looking at the tree, Obito shifted. He could climb the tree using his knives, but it seemed almost sacrilegious to bury a piece of metal into the old and majestic structure. Likewise the tree seemed to give off a unique energy all its own, more like a person than it unconscious plant. To climb it using his chakra was almost as unappealing as sticking it with knives.

"Obito?"

The human looked up. Lee was hovering a few feet above him. He seemed worried. With a smile, ninja waved him off.

"I'm fine. I'm coming."

Silently, he asked the tree's permission and forgiveness for what he was about to do, and bound himself to the trunk with chakra. Once that was done he walked up the side. Seeing him coming after him, Lee nodded and returned to his own ascent. Obito noticed that the tree seemed to reach out and touch his chakra. He wondered if he was imagining it, or if it was aware of him. Either way, he was relieved to release the bond when he got to the branches and follow Lee up the rest of the way by climbing with nothing but his hands and feet.

Eventually the branches gave way to an opening. On one side of the tree the limbs intertwined of their own volition and formed a room up against the trunk. The wisps of white light from before, Obito now saw were luminous orbs floating aimlessly within the room and giving off no heat. "Fairylights," he muttered as he watched them drift. A nook in the trunk filled with leaves and moss gave the impression of a bed. On the opposite side of the room, where the edge of the tree was, the leaves parted to form something of a window. It was at this window that Lee stood looking out into the dark.

The view from the window wasn't much. It mostly looked out into the dark forest beyond. But in the distance a cluster of man made lights in the forest stood together in the dark.

"Hey," Obito said lightly. "I can see my house from here." He laughed and tried to figure out which of the far off lights were which of the buildings of his village. He stared at the lights for a while before turning his back on them. Lee had already moved away from the window and climbed into bed. "What's up?"

The fairy looked at him. He seemed somber somehow. But it was like looking at a tragic painting, beautiful and heartbreaking. "You're going to leave soon."

A smile tugged itself across the man's lips. "Not soon. In a week."

"I said before, time means little to me. You're leaving. I don't like it."

For some reason, Obito laughed. "You can be really childish sometimes." He pushed himself away from the wall and walked nearer to the man. "But time has no meaning to you, so what is growing up? Nothing right?" He closed the distance between them and leaned into the nook. "But that's what's so interesting about you."

Lee shimmered a little brighter and that humming noise began to sound again. The man leaned in. His presence wasn't warm like a human's but cool and refreshing. When they finally made contact it was like a long cool drink of water for Obito.

The fairy's body was cooler than human's. It was something that the ninja had noticed before, but now that he was touching the man, running his hands over him, the difference sent chills over his skin.

"Get rid of your gloves."

Obito wasn't sure when Lee had taken his mouth off his. The comment caught him off guard. He raised his head and found himself parting with the crook of the fairy's neck. They were tucked into the wall-space bed. Obito's vest and shirt were gone.

"You're gloves are scratchy," the pale man continued. "Take them off."

The ninja blinked a few times. His movements were sluggish. His mind was foggy. "Yea," he muttered. "Okay."

Slowly he peeled off his gloves and tossed them to the side. With them off, he could feel more of the fairy's body. The curve of his hip, arch of his back, all of it covered in perfect pale smooth skin that smelt like fragrant leaves, it was intoxicating. Obito dipped his head down and licked a dip in the man's chest where his rib cage stopped. Lee made a sound like wind filtering through grass before sighing. When the ninja went to lick the same spot, he found he met with his lover's mouth instead. He wasn't sure how he'd moved but he went along with it. He felt like he was losing himself anyway.

The sun rose from somewhere on the other side of the tree. The light filtered through the leaves and turned the room in the branches into a green tinted orb in which Obito and Less rested. The human was awake, laying on his back in the bed-nook. He was naked. His clothes had been tossed piece by piece out of the niche and were somewhere on the woven floor. Lee was laying mostly on top of him, chest-down. The fairy had his head on Obito's shoulder. He was pressed up against his left side, closer to the inside of the nook. Over them both was a blanket of a soft moss that Obito couldn't identify.

The ninja shifted. He needed to go home. They'd be looking for him. No one would think he was deserting. No Uchiha would ever do that. But they would be worried. He needed to get back.

"Lee?" Pushing himself up, Obito looked down at the fairy. He was paler and less luminous in the daylight but the human supposed that was normal. "Lee, wake up. I have to go."

"Go?" The fairly moaned in the back of his throat as he pushed himself up. "Already?"

"Yea." Obito wriggled out from under the man and began to grope for his clothes. "I'll be back tonight. You can teach me some moves with the sword."

"I can teach you some moves right here," Lee said mischievously.

The human gave him a little smile before standing up and pulling up his pants. "Yea. That too. Anyway I'll see you tonight."

"I'll wait here for you," the pale man assured him as he floated up out of the bed-nook. "Unless you take too long. Then I'll come get you."

Obito's laugh was muffled within the folds of his shirt. When he finally pulled his head through the top he shot the fairy a wide smile. "It'll only be a day. You'll wait."

Once he was dressed, Obito jumped down from the branches of the grand tree to the top of one of the smaller trees near it. He moved through the top of the tree towards the gate. Lee flitted along next to him, barely touching down on the branches. That same high pitched hum accompanied his movements. He wanted to ask what the sound was, but in the same jump Obito opened his mouth, the gate appeared before him.

The ninja stopped his movement at the top of gate. Lee touched down beside him.

"So I'll see you tonight?" In direct sunlight, the man seemed like no more than a mirage or a trick of the light. He was so pale he looked almost translucent. Obito reached out and touched his cheek, just to make sure he was still real.

"Yea. I'll be back. Just wait." He chuckled. "But if I take too long, feel free to come get me."

"I will," Lee said quickly.

"Okay."

Obito leaned in and kissed the fairy's cheek before jumping down off the gate and heading back through the forest towards his village. Lee watched the direction he was going for a while. He couldn't see him because of the trees blocking his view to the ground, but he could feel the man moving across the ground. When the human got so far away that he lost track of him, Lee turned and went back to home.

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**Well, that's one down and about a half a dozen chapter's to go. See you next time.**


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